LOST SPACECRAFT – The Search for Liberty Bell 7
THEY SAID IT WOULD NEVER BE FOUND. Not only did Curt Newport find it, he raised it from under three miles of water during the deepest commercial salvage operation in history. “It,” was astronaut Gus Grissom’s famed Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft, lost at sea on July 21, 1961 during America’s second manned space mission in an incident destined to pass into space lore, only to be resurrected during two harrowing undersea expeditions in the summer of 1999.
Lost
Spacecraft describes the exploration of two unique and dangerous environments
- space and the deep ocean - and how the paths of two men, one living
and one dead, crossed in the recovery of the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft.
Beginning with Grissom’s childhood and later indoctrination into
the astronaut corps, Lost Spacecraft details the history of Project Mercury,
the creation of the Mercury spacecraft, Grissom’s ill-fated Mercury
Redstone mission, developments in undersea technology, as well as author
Curt Newport’s 14 year-long obsession to raise the sunken space-age
Titanic from the abyss.
Long resigned by space historians as being “lost and gone forever” and against staggering odds, Newport's team managed to find the phone-booth sized space vehicle during their unprecedented expedition, only to see success slip through their fingers. Working in water depths equal to the height of 28 Washington Monuments and using a new underwater vehicle built in only 60 days, Newport returned Liberty Bell 7 to Cape Canaveral, Florida 38 years to the day after Grissom blasted off from his tiny launch pad.
Using numerous photographs, many never before published, Lost Spacecraft is a tale of bravery during the early exploration of space how one man’s determination rescued a priceless artifact of the space program from certain destruction in the deep ocean.
A Fascinating
Account, December 10, 2002
Reviewer: Kevin Spoering from Buffalo, Missouri
This is the amazing story of the search and recovery of Liberty Bell
7, Gus Grissom's 1961 Mercury spacecraft that sank to the bottom of the
Atlantic ocean in an accidental sinking after the mission, while the capsule
was still floating in the recovery area. Curt Newport is a veteran of
deep sea underwater work and he gives readers here a page-turning account
of the hardships of working with remote vehicles more than three miles
under the surface of the ocean where pressures are 7000 pounds per square
inch and more. He also covers the man Gus Grissom, who many considered
the top astronaut at the time, including his childhood and later. The
Mercury capsule (yes, back then they were called capsules, not spacecraft)
is covered in detail, it's construction and operation. Also, the trajectory
that this 1961 Mercury-Redstone sub-orbital mission travelled is discussed
to some length as it's eventual underwater location is dependent on this.
The technology of underwater vehicles is covered in addition, to give
readers an appreciation of the difficulty inherent in this type of work.
Curt Newport has included many, many, excellent photographs in this book,
well done here. The writing style is clear and flowing, a joy to read.
This is also one man's story of determination and resilience in the face
of negative odds.
On a personal note, when I was six years old in 1961 and living in St.
Louis County, just a few miles from where this Mercury spacecraft was
built, I remember my father coming home from work (he worked at McDonnell
Aircraft as an engineer and perhaps did a bit of work on this very spacecraft)
and said "it sank to the bottom of the ocean", referring to
the sinking of the Liberty Bell 7 that occurred that day. Liberty Bell
7 was recovered in the summer of 1999, restored , and during a national
tour I finally got to see it at the St. Louis Science Center in the summer
of 2001, in the city where it was built, closure in a sense to me. It
is, or soon will be, on permanent display in Hutchinson, Kansas, at the
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, can't wait to go there!
The Search
for Liberty Bell 7, November 20, 2002
Reviewer: A reader from Colorado Springs, CO
On 21 July, 1961, after a near perfect flight, The Mercury space capsule,
Liberty Bell 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.
During the recovery process, the escape hatch blew prematurely. the capsule
filled with water and sank, nearly taking the pilot, Gus Grissom, with
it. Thus began one of the great controversies and mysteries of the United
States space program The author explores the events leading to the incident
and examines possible theories concerning the premature hatch release.
Newport was uniquely qualified to lead the expedition to recover Liberty
Bell 7. He was a pioneer in the developement and operation of Remotely
Operated Vehicles (ROV) and an experienced veteran of underwater operations
all over the world. His fascination with the mystery concerning the lost
space capsule led to 14 years of research into the flight, probable location,
condition and possible methods of recovery.
The highlight of the book is the detailed description of the search for
Liberty Bell 7, and its subsequent recovery from a depth of nearly 3 miles.
The narrative reads more like pulp fiction than a factual rendering of
events, with moments of elation followed by despair and ultimate victory.
This is a must read for space and underwater exploration buffs alike.
I only wish that the team had been given the opportunity to recover the
hatch cover, surely, one of the targets in the vicinity of the capsule,
and a key element in resolving the mystery and controversy concerning
the premature hatch release.
A great
read on the space program and deep sea recovery, November 18, 2002
Reviewer: Jaime Grissom from Mitchell, Indiana
Curt does an outstanding job in taking a technical undertaking and making
it interesting and easy to understand. There are some great early pictures
of Gus, some that has not been seen. He has very interesting insights
from some of Gus' childhood friends and those who were close to him during
the Mercury missions. It was like I was right there all the way throught
the flight and the recovery operations.
It is a must read for those interested in deep sea recovery operations
or in Gus' MR-4, Liberty Bell-7 flight.
Curt's
voyage to 16,000 feet is tense, at some moments stomach weakening, and
finally richly satisfying,
January, 2003
Reviewer: Richard Glueck, Space History Newsgroup
Curt Newport's book is a very good read, moving along at a pace that allows you to build on his desire to locate the missing spacecraft and then to share his rise and fall and rise in fortune when he got the chance to go for it. Like anyone who undertakes a massive project that should be straight forward and yet looms like a mountain of difficulties ahead of him, Curt's voyage to 16,000 feet is tense, at some moments stomach weakening, and finally richly satisfying. In my mind the highlights include the descriptions of the Mercury spacecraft (#11), the positive nature of Gus's sub-orbital mission, and the informal introduction we get to Gus Grissom, the American pilot/astronaut. Curt further points out the glaring character assassination in the film, "The Right Stuff", and the certain assumptions made in Wolfe's book. Descriptions of the recovered capsule, particularly the interior are intriguing and answer plenty of questions about what many space enthusiasts/historians had speculated on for years. There is adequate documentation to "put you on deck with the crew" when she was swung aboard.
Product Details
• Hardcover: 312 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.02 x 10.06 x
6.98
• Publisher: Apogee Books; ISBN: 1896522882; Bk&Cd-Rom edition
(2002)
• Average Customer Review:
• Based on 4 reviews through Amazon.com
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